Wall Building Recap

Posted by Keli'i Kotubetey on June 30, 2014

As a part of our Maliʻu a Liʻu Project funded by OHA, we continued our series of hands-on workshops in June with an Uhau Humu Pōhaku Workshop lead by our Paepae o Heʻeia staff, and in particular our Kū Hou Kuapā team.

Although the turnout was small, it lead to a wonderful full day of teaching and learning with much more attention given to each participant, which was a great bonus. The participants began the day with some quick basics and rules to remember on a dry erase board and then quickly moved out to the project site to take a “test”. It was their first chance to touch pōhaku and they were tasked with building a 3ʻ x 3ʻ x 2ʻ ahu or platform in 1 hour given what information they had already been given. The point was really to prove “Ma ka hana ka ʻike”. The best drawings or textbook are never a substitute for actually doing it yourself.

Then after a quick lunch break everyone worked for a solid 3 hours to rebuild a section of kuapā 21 feet in length moving up stream from the infamous “corner”. It was a rewarding experience for all and a two-way learning street as everyone learned something new that day, including our staff. Mahalo to each of the participants and we encourage anyone else to sign up the next time we offer this workshop experience.